RUSSIA INQUIRY
Trump denies plans to fire Mueller
BBC
Washington: President Donald Trump has denied he is planning to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible Russian meddling in the 2016 election, reports BBC.
Tensions have been rising between the White House and Mr Muellers probe.
On Saturday a lawyer for Mr Trumps presidential transition group said thousands of emails had been unlawfully obtained by Mr Muellers team.
Responding to questions over the legal row, Mr Trump said it was not looking good and his people were very upset.
I cant imagine theres anything on them, frankly, because, as we said, theres no collusion, he said, while returning from a weekend trip to Camp David.
His administration has denied working with Russia in the 2016 election and Mr Trump has labelled the investigation a witch hunt.
Responding to a media question on the White House lawn on whether he was considering firing Mr Mueller amid his criticism, Mr Trump responded No, Im not.
Several Democratic lawmakers had expressed concern, and on Friday the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, said he feared Republican members wanted to shut the probe down.
Several former members of Mr Trumps campaign team are facing charges as part of the investigation.
A lawyer working for the Trump for America (TFA) group, who helped Donald Trumps transition to the White House after his election, complained on Saturday after the group became aware Mr Muellers investigation had obtained tens of thousands of their emails.
Kory Langhofer sent a letter to US congressional committees claiming the records had been obtained unlawfully.
The TFA group had used the facilities, including email hosting, of a government agency, the General Services Administration (GSA), in the period between Donald Trumps election in November 2016 and inauguration in January.
In his letter, Mr Langhofer, says GSA staff unlawfully produced TFAs private materials, including privileged communications to Mr Muellers investigation team.
The emails obtained reportedly involve 13 Trump transition officials, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn who pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI earlier this month.
The GSA, he complains, did not own or control the records in question and maintains the constitutional rights of transition officials were violated. A spokesperson for Mr Mueller said they had done nothing wrong.
When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owners consent or appropriate criminal process, Peter Carr said.
GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt has denied another of Mr Langhofers accusations, that the GSA gave assurances that requests for Trump transition records would go through the groups lawyers.
